Pages

Friday, November 25, 2011

I love, love, LOVE weddings....friends, music, food, and booze are the perfect recipe for a good time in my books :) I was lucky enough this fall to have 3 different weddings in 2 weekends...and one of the weekends I was fortunate enough to be a part of 2 weddings. While this isn't a typical "What the heck, why not?" because there is not chance in the world that I would have said no to either one, I do think it is quite an accomplishment to have 2 weddings AND receptions in less than 48 hours and survive ;)

Wedding #1: My beautiful friend Lauren

Through the wedding process I was lucky enough to meet Marley and Kelli. Lauren is incredibly lucky to call these two her friends and now I am lucky enough to call them friends as well :)

We know how to have a good time...with or without wine ;)

I've always been incredibly jealous of Lauren's dance moves...during the father-daughter dance I witnessed exactly where she learned to dance :)

I included some pictures from Lauren's photographer...this one happens to be one of my favorites. Jumping in heels is not exactly the easiest thing to do...I can't believe I was able to walk away from this experience.

The best wedding party ever :)

This pose was what I call "scary" Trent wanted to pick Kelli and I up, this took a little assistance, and LOTS of grunting (quietly calling us fat) before we were able to get this gem of a picture :)

Wedding #2: Kristen and Brendan; my first experience as a personal attendant. I was a little worried about doing my job correctly, but the good news is Kristen is overly organized and I didn't need to worry about missing one thing :)

We definitely know how to do weddings ;)

After taking lots of "couple" pictures I got tired of waiting for my date George Glass so I posed by myself :)

As always Amy saved the day...

I love my friends :)

Brendan is a lucky guy :)

One of the best parts of the wedding was the mashed potato bar!

There are times in my life when I realize how lucky I really am...after this weekend of wedding chaos I was truly reminded how blessed I am :)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Since nearly 75% of my friends are from the great state of Iowa, I have been one by one checking off the "must sees" of the state. This year it was decided that I needed to see an Iowa State football game. However, it couldn't be just any game it had to be the Iowa State vs Iowa game. I don't know much about Iowa State football...but it was clear to me the minute we arrived that this was going to be a BIG game!

Saturday morning we started VERY early...and since I didn't have my own Iowa State shirt...Erin let me borrow one of hers!

You can't tailgate without mimosa's, and despite what you might think, I had only had one tiny sip when disaster struck. I spilled...which really isn't all that suprising if you know me ;)

I like to surround myself with extremely tall people....

Half-time

Half-time performance

At one of my other Iowa adventures we went to the Iowa State fair where I witnessed a woman using her purse to protect herself from the rain. Apparently it is a growing trend...this woman was using her program to block the sun.

During triple overtime Erin was not breathing...at all ;)

CYCLONES WON!!!! I have been to my fair share of sporting events, but this was by far one of the most exciting, amazing games I have ever witnessed!

After the game Erin and I decided to head out for a little college fun...this is where we discovered we were OLD period.

A little reunion time with my favorite drinking buddy was also a highlight of the weekend :)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

After missing out on many concerts and fun events because I need to "think" about it and by the time I decide I want to buy tickets they are sold out...I decided that when the Maroon 5 tickets went on sale I would buy some right away. Lauren and I both LOVE Maroon 5 (or maybe just Adam Levine) so I knew she would be up for going and the concert was right after her birthday...so viola...birthday gift :)

I bought the tickets in March, and the concert wasn't until September, and I was terrified I would lose the tickets...however despite my past with losing things I managed to maintain control over these puppies for several months!

I have been to several concerts in my life and I have seen some amazing bands...but WOW... Matt Nathenson, Train, and Maroon 5 were phenomenal. This concert ranks in my top 5...the songs were great, Adam Levine is beautiful, and the performances were wonderful...despite Trains lead singer's pants ;)

As usual Lauren and I made many new friends...and maybe an enemy or two...but that is all Lauren's fault :)

Couldn't have asked for better weather OR better company :)

Train was fantastic! I took probably 14 million pictures, but I will spare you ;)

Another picture of us...

...and another, because apparently we needed more :)

I love drunk obnoxious people at sporting events, concerts, restaurants, bars...pretty much anywhere. This woman happened to be our entertainment for the night. She was fantastic!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

I have made some really stupid decisions because of this New Year's Resolution. I make decisions without thinking twice (which is kind of the idea) and then highly regret them later on... This particular event was one of them. I got yet another e-mail from Brandon aka our event coordinator telling everyone about this race called The Warrior Dash and what wave everyone was going to be signing up for. Before even thinking I was like "What the heck, why not?" replied to the e-mail and registered for the race. I didn't exactly know what this race was all about...except for that I would get a free warrior helmet, and honestly that was enough for me. After signing up I decided to research it a little more...and WOW it was definitely was not what I was expecting, but it said you should train to be in 10K shape and I have ran several of those so I figured I would be just fine.

As the day of the race got closer I realized that it was end of July...and HOT outside. I don't particulary love running outside in the heat, which is why in the summer I run at 6am to avoid it. Well, not only was it the end of July, the heat we signed up for started at noon. Talk about good planning on our part ;)

As always, the morning of the race I was cursing the person who talked me into this, but really this time I could only blame myself. (And yes, I sign up for these races and then whine the WHOLE morning of because I don't wanna do it...lol!) We all met at Brandon's to carpool up to the race, and honestly at this point I was starting to get nervous. It was only a 5k run...but there were 10 obstacles that we would have to pass through along the way. I can run...but I wouldn't say my upper body strength or coordination are exceptional ;)

I did in fact make it through the race successfully, but it wasn't an easy task...let's just say the obstacles were not meant for a shorter person like myself. The very first one was a retaining wall of sorts and the guys that were around me were literally jumping over this like it was nothing...I had to pull myself up and over because they were almost as tall as me! The rope at the end was also not meant for someone with short legs...just getting onto the rope was a challenge in itself...lol! However the most challenging (yet humorous) part was the excessive amount of mud on the trails...not only were the trails muddy but they were extremely hilly...several parts of the race were impossible to run through...although I tried and ended up on my rear!! All in all it was a great day...and it is over with. I can't say I would voluntarily sign up for this race again...but who knows ;)

Unfortunately I didn't have access to my camera for the day so I had to take these photos from the web-page...I like this picture because it makes me look like I am beating everyone ;) Lol! I finished 121st out of 806 women in my age group and 438th out of over 3,000 others on Saturday, which I think is a pretty darn good accomplishment!

At the very end of the race they had a fire pit you had to jump over...my legs were literally jello at this point and jumping was the last thing I wanted to do :)

We all finished the race!!! Way to go guys...we rock!

The final obstacle was a mud-pit...which I am no stranger to, but this particular mud pit was quite the experience...I tried to step in carefully and totally bit it...hence being covered in mud :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

I've crashed a few weddings in my day...my first being my dear friend Goose's sister's wedding. So, it only seemed appropriate that my first family vacation crashing be with the same people :)

Unfortunately for the last few years my Goose (there is a story behind the nickname and no I am not her Maverick nor does it have anything to do with Top Gun) has lived hours away and we haven't had the chance to see each other as often as we would like. So, as summer approached we made a phone date to make plans for a mini vacation to get some much needed Goose time. :) As we looked at all the weekends we realized that we were both too freaking busy...and Goose couldn't get much time off work and she was already taking time off for her families annual Branson trip. As we were talking Goose joked that I should just join them at their family reunion. We joked back and forth for awhile, before she was like "seriously...you could come" It took me only seconds before I said "what the heck...why not." I mean as long as her family was okay with it :)

Of course Mama and Papa Goose said I was welcome to join in on their family reunion festivities in good ole Branson Missouri...

Our adventure began in Neodesha, KS with some long lost college friends. Devin aka Steffan was one of my very favorite people from Pitt and when he found out we would be in town for the evening he invited us out for drinks. Despite the fact that it was late by the time we got in town AND we had to be up early for a 3 hour car drive I convinced Goose we just HAD to go...just for one drink ;) As we got ready to leave her parents house, her mom made us promise not to whine the next day during the drive to Branson. Of course we agreed and headed out. Well....many hours, beers, and fireworks later we finally arrived back at the Goose household...needless to say Mama Goose was not happy with our late night adventure :) But don't worry...we didn't complain once :)

What Branson trip is complete without "Riding the Ducks"? We of course justified this trip by saying Kate, Goose's neice, really wanted to go :) While waiting for our duck we hung out with Kate and colored these beautiful pictures.

RIDE THE DUCKS!!!!

This is the picture they took for us as we boarded the duck...I ALMOST bought it because of the face Goose is making...Amazing

Day 2 was a trip to Silver Dollar City, the happiest place on earth...or maybe that is Disney? The night before Goose and I made our plan of attack. We were determined to ride EVERY ride that day....however after the swings of doom, I wasn't so sure I made a wise choice. These swings in kiddie land are the devil...I thought the ride would never end. I will never be getting back on these puppies again.

After the swings we needed a little break, and as we were sitting and people watching we saw this dad with his daughter on his shoulders. Cute right? Not when she is 13 and my size! I wish I could have gotten a better picture.

Still recovering and watching Mama Goose and Kate ride the roller coaster.

This ride was also a bad decision...I felt very sick afterwards! Spinning in circles is not for me.

Judging from the last two rides you would think I was a big baby when it game to rides...however Wild Fire and Powder Keg were my absolute favorites! I like going fast...but not while spinning in circles!

I also do not like the swing...I get naseous swinging on the swing sets at school, not sure why I thought this would be okay.

Branson in July is really hot, so needless to say Goose and I did not meet our goal of walking all over the theme park and riding all the rides. We spent the last half of our day in "Scary Christmas Land" with the giant Santa drinking our snow cones :)

Vacation crashing is almost as fun as wedding crashing, hopefully the Willard family will bring me along next time :)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Every summer I tend to forget how busy the school year actually is. I mistakenly thought that since I was done with my master's classes I would have more time than I knew what to do with this year...wrong-o!!! I will always just be one of those people who fills up any and all of my free time, because I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I wasn't busy :) I'm going to attempt to catch up on blogging, but I have a pretty busy couple of months ahead of me, so we shall see how that goes!

I'm going all the way back to June for this post, and just looking at the pictures makes me miss the beginning of summer and a whole weekend with a few of my favorite ladies :(

Since my friend Jackie was turning 29 (again) she wanted to do something special for her big day. Lucky for us one of her student's parents own a condo on Table Rock Lake and agreed to rent it to us at a discounted rate!!!! After a few glorious hours in the car singing along to songs I forgot even existed...and even one I learned the actual words to (and will never be able to sing again!!) we arrived safe and sound. Once we all got there the fun never stopped....we learned to drive a boat, drove around for hours looking for ice cream, watched Clueless, invented a ridiculous game, and most importantly we had a wonderful weekend together :) cheesy yes, but 100% true...I have great friends!!!

Literally minutes after arriving we headed straight for the wine....when Jackie declined we knew something was up....and we were right....SHE'S PREGNANT!!! We all hugged, cried, and most importantly toasted to the new mom to be! Over the last few years I have given her plenty of practice on being a mom (I still need help ordering a cheeseburger) so I know she will be fantastic!

Captain Emily...after nearly giving the boat rental guy a heart attack, she safely navigated our boat on the high seas...that is until the boat wouldn't start :)

Enjoying an afternoon on the boat :) Birthday Girl Erin is definitely a much better driver than Nick...and she most definitely looks better doing it :)Dinner at the Landing for Jackie's birthday

While walking around the Branson Landing we saw this little jewel. It is a hurricane simulator...and seriously WHO could resist?? Kala wanted to try and I thought "What the heck...Why not?" It was only $2 and now we can both say we survived a hurricane :)

Kala wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about this ;)

There goes the hair

We couldn't stop laughing...and with the wind it made it hard to breathe!

We survived!!

That night we made dinner...and I just included these pictures to tease my widdle fwend Kawa :) She struggled with those darn corn cobs ;)

Success!!

Below I have some words from our completely ridiculous game (a spin off of bananagrams) that completely describes our entire weekend....

Teacher, Runner, Wife, Novice DIY'er, Ice Cream Lover, Avid New Year's Resolution Maker, and excited Mama-to-Be! I do my best to live my life by the slogan "What the Heck, Why Not?" while making sure to enjoy all these wonderful little moments that life has to offer.